


french braids and silly crushes

by alistaircousland



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Mutual Pining, fluffy fluffy fluff fluff, remus and lily being friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27078826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alistaircousland/pseuds/alistaircousland
Summary: Remus wanted to know how to braid Sirius' hair, so he asked Lily to teach him.---or in other words:a little drabble i had in mind where Remus and Lily bond over their crushes on Sirius and James respectively on their seventh year.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin/Sirius Black
Comments: 4
Kudos: 136





	french braids and silly crushes

The first time it happened, Remus didn’t mean to. He had just been coming back from the Hospital Wing after having Madam Pomfrey prodding at him from every angle and had entered the common room with the intention to get to his dorm and sleep. Last night’s full moon was exceptionally exhausting for him, even when he had his Marauders with him, and he hoped his boys didn’t get to trouble while he needed to rest.

But no, because Lily Evans was sitting in the common room with a book in front of her—what looked like a book for Potions, with its illustrious drawings of cauldrons catching fire—while braiding her hair.

“Hi, Lily,” he greeted.

“Hi Remus. Why aren’t you in class?” She said with a sniffle.

“I could ask you the same.” Remus responded, taking a seat next to her. “Potions?”

“I have a cold,” Lily unceremoniously sneezed to her elbow, “and I asked for a day off, but I’m lagging off in Potions. What about you?”

“I’m not feeling well. I just came back from Madam Pomfrey,” he shrugged, which wasn’t a complete lie. “Can I help you with that?” he motioned to her hands in her hair.

“You… can braid hair?” Lily asked sceptically.

“Not really. But I’d like to learn.” Remus smiled. “I—ah, well, Pad—Sirius has really long hair, right? And whenever we’re hanging out together his hair would get _everywhere_ , and as much as I love the guy, it’s pretty distracting to sleep when you have a mouthful of hair in your mouth, and—”

“Love the guy, huh.” Lily prodded at Remus’s arm.

“Not—not that way!” He staggered. “Like, like a friend! I love James and Peter too, you know! Like, they’re my best friends, and I would do everything for them, and—”

“Remus.” Lily said in this reprimanding tone, which had made Remus shut up, but she continued with a loud sneeze.

“Bless you.”

“Thanks. You can help me out, sure. Do you want me to show you the first steps?” Lily offered. Remus nodded. Lily let her half-braided hair fall, combed it with her fingers so her fiery red hair was now draped over her back.

“Okay, well, the way I do it is I put it half-up first,” she said, demonstrating as she had half of her hair up, just right above her ears, “and then I divide them in three, see.” She did this with a practice ease, even without mirrors. “This is when I’m too lazy to do it. There’s this French braid, which is super pretty, but— _achoo_ —I can’t be bothered. So just go around the three in the same sequence until the end, and you just tie it at the end.”

Remus nodded. He took the remainder of Lily’s half-braided hair and followed her steps. “Don’t pull too tight. I’d rather not get a headache.”

“Okay,” he said softly, continuing the braid until the very ends. “And I just tie it up now?” Lily nodded, offering her hair tie to Remus.

“Hey, Remus.” Lily called as Remus tied the end of her hair. “Are you sure it’s because you don’t like Sirius’ hair in your mouth?”

Remus let his hands drop as he finished tying Lily’s hair. It looked wonky—he hoped Lily wouldn’t be mad. “Your hair is wonky. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“Pssh, don’t worry. I just want them away so they don’t get tangled in my snot.” Lily sneezed again. “You can practice again sometime if you want—” Remus brightened at this, but then Lily continued, “as long as you tell me what’s going on between you and Sirius.”

“Nothing, Lily, I promise. We’re just good friends.” Remus sighed. “I mean… he’s… really nice to me. It’s—I—James and Peter are too, but… Sirius is just… different, I guess? God, I don’t even know why I’m telling you this.” He laughed self-depreciatively. “Nothing is happening, Lily. Even if I want to—Sirius is way too good for me.”

“You’d never know until you try,” Lily elbowed him.

“Like James?” Remus elbowed Lily back as her cheeks went red, like her hair.

“Shut up.” Lily slapped Remus’ arm playfully.

\---

As it turned out, Lily had her suspicions about Remus’ ‘furry little condition’ (James’ word, which although Remus wanted so much to strangle the guy, at least it made him sound like he had too much hair on his body instead of actual lycanthropy) because she was just that observant, and didn’t find anything wrong about it. If Remus hadn’t approved of James’ crush for Lily yet, well, she had his full blessing then. Not that she needed it—it was James that needed the blessing for Lily, but, that’s a topic for another day.

Quidditch season was coming up, and since neither Remus nor Lily were in the team, they spent a part of their free time together, whether it was Remus learning how to braid hair (not for his stupid crush for Sirius, of course, he was just curious and Lily had really pretty hair too, he _swore_ ) or Lily asking for more information for her budding crush on James, which Remus had choked on his drink when he heard about it ( _“Are you serious, Lily?” “No, I’m Lily, but I’ve been wondering why out of the four boys it had to be him that I like. At least you’re, you know, a responsible student.” “I think you’ve given me too much credit. I am a Marauder, Lily.” “No one calls you guys that.” “We do!” “Shut up or I won’t teach you how to do Dutch braid.”_ ) but agreed to help out. After all, if he couldn’t get Sirius, at least James and Lily could be together, right?

Their budding closeness had been a topic within the Marauders too, as James was scared Remus was taking Lily away from him ( _“No, Prongs, I won’t break the bro code even if I actually do like her.” “The what code?” “Bro—it’s a Muggle thing. Just—you guys come first in my life, okay. I won’t betray your feelings.” “Moony, she said she would date you.” “That’s because I told her no one would date me.” “Piss off, Moons, I’d date you.” That was Sirius, which made Remus’ head snapped so fast he could’ve broken his neck, and he could feel his cheeks heating up. “What?” “I mean—hypothetically. You’re not a bad person.” “I literally turn into a monster—” “You’re going off topic!” James shouted. “Remus, I love you, but I swear to Merlin, if you touch Lily—” “James, I promise. The only thing I’ll be touching of Lily is her hair.” “Fine.”_ ). Remus and Lily would find a way to spend time together even with the Marauders around, with Lily patting Remus’ shoulder as she passed the boys in the common room, while only giving a nod to James and greeting Sirius and Peter, before leaving the room with her girls. Or when she put on Muggle music and she belted out the lyrics with Remus and other Muggle-raised students followed off-note, while James, Sirius, and other students that were raised in the wizarding world could not fathom what was happening in their common room.

So when the first Quidditch game day came, Remus was not completely surprised when Lily sat down next to him and shoved two hair ties and a hairbrush in front of him in the Great Hall. She merely put all of her hair back, facing the other way.

“French?” Remus asked and Lily nodded. “If you could do it. But it’s fine if you do it the messy way too.”

“I’ll try.” The boy said, smoothing her hair. “Your hair feels different. New shampoo?”

“Yeah. I had my mom send me her shampoo—this is all Muggle technology. Chemicals, no magic. Impressive, isn’t it?” She said with this proud note in her voice.

“I agree. Although, we are going in the field, you know, and the wind is pretty strong today.” Remus commented absently as he combed Lily’s hair, before starting to braid her hair.

“That’s why I’m asking you to braid my hair. Less hair in my mouth.”

After a few minutes, and a glare from James that probably would drill a hole to the back of Remus’ head, and a silent stare from Sirius, Remus was finished. “I hope I do your hair justice.” He said. “What’s the second hair tie for?”

Lily then turned around to face the table, where James’s eyes were flicking between her and Remus in this—jealous? Angry? She wasn’t sure—glare and Peter was looking at them as if this friendship they had was weird.

“I think it’s fine,” she said as she patted her hair, “I mean, it’s a bit wonky, but it’s fine. You did well, Moonsey.” Lily nudged him with his elbow. “The other one is for Sirius, of course. We wouldn’t want his hair in his mouth while he flies around.”

“I’m _literally_ right here, Evans.” Sirius rolled his eyes.

“I know.” Lily stood up from the table and kissed Remus’ cheek quickly. “I’ll see you in the field. Good luck, Potter, Sirius.” With that, Lily left the table with a flabbergasted James, a confused Peter, and Sirius that was already giving his back to Remus with a huff.

“Did she just—” James stopped in his words.

“Wish you luck? Yeah. I told you I won’t betray you.” Remus said as he took the spare hair tie to braid Sirius’ hair.

“Please tell me if I’m pulling your hair too tight. I’d rather not hurt you,” he said as he combed Sirius’ hair with his fingers.

“She _kissed_ your _cheek_ , Moony. And she called you Moonsey too!” James burrowed his head in his hands.

“James, you’ve snogged Peter twice. And she’s the brightest witch in our age, do you really think she wouldn’t find out?”

“Wait, she knew?”

“Mm-hmm.” Remus nodded as he continued to braid Sirius’ hair. “She knows about me. So even if I liked her, that definitely would be a dealbreaker.”

“It’s not,” Sirius mumbled.

“Pardon?”

“It’s not, Merlin, Moons. So what if you have a furry little problem? I have daddy issues.” Sirius tried to turn around to face Remus, but the other boy had turned his head back to face him away.

“Pads, stay still, I’m not done with your hair.” Remus tied the end of his hair with Lily’s hair tie. “Now you can.”

Sirius finally turned around. “Just, Moons—that thing you’ve got isn’t a dealbreaker.”

“We’ll continue this conversation later. We need to go, Pad.” James stood up from his seat and took his broom with him. “Moons, Wormtail, you coming?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Remus smiled as he and Peter followed their friends to the Quidditch field.

\---

At the end of the day, their common room was buzzing with euphoria, as Gryffindor had won against Slytherin in their first match. James and Sirius were being paraded around the house along with the rest of the team, while Remus and Peter followed around as their number one cheerleaders.

It had been a couple hours when Lily found Remus sitting on the couch, slightly tipsy but with a smile in his face, with Peter sleeping, his head on Remus’ lap while he sat against the couch on the floor, having had one too much firewhisky.

“Do you guys plan on going to Hogsmeade this week?” Lily asked as she sat next to Remus, cross-legged with a warm butterbeer in her hands.

“I think so. Why?” Remus asked, his eyes a little droopy and his smile a little too wide, but he still found Lily’s reddening face. “You want to tag along?”

“Maybe. Do you think James will mind?” Lily asked.

“Of course not. I mean, Peter’s gonna bring his girlfriend from Ravenclaw. God I forgot her name—Mary? Mindy? Something like that—so yeah, me and Sirius would probably stay back and watch you guys make heart eyes to each other.” Remus shrugged as his head fell on top of Lily’s.

“I don’t think you’d mind that too much,” she elbowed his torso.

“I guess.”

“Have you told him how you felt?” Lily asked, her tone getting serious. Remus shook his head.

“I don’t know how.” Remus sighed. “I’m happy just to be his friend. I don’t want to ruin what we already have. I don’t want to ruin the Marauders too.” He said as he smoothed Peter’s hair, as the guy snorted in his sleep and comfied himself more on Remus’ lap. “If I keep it really deep, it won’t bother the boys.”

“But doesn’t it hurt? Seeing other people hit on him?” Lily nodded at where a lower-year student (fourth? Fifth?) was talking to Sirius, her smile sultry, her intent so obvious on her face and Sirius was laughing along with whatever she was saying.

“He deserves better than me, Lily.” Remus sighed, his head still on top of her head. “He should have a chance at a relationship with a normal person.”

“I don’t know about you, but I think nothing about the four of you screams normal.” Lily took a sip of her drink.

“I guess.” Remus sighed. At that, Sirius found them on the couch and made a beeline to join on the other side of Remus, wrenching his head from where it was perched on top of Lily’s to his shoulder.

“Sorry Evans, this one is mine.” Sirius said as he patted Remus’ head, the one on his shoulder, not noticing how red Remus’ face had become.

“Don’t worry, Sirius, I’d never take him from you.” As Lily answered, James was also coming to their direction, taking the space next to Peter sleeping to sit down and put his head on Sirius’ lap.

“Good game, Potter.” Lily immediately took a sip from her butterbeer again as she said it.

“I—you were talking to me?” James jumped at the mention of his name, and when Lily nodded behind her glass, James smiled so wide it probably could break his face in half. “Thank you, Evans. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It took so much training and—” Sirius had put a hand on his mouth.

“Don’t mind him Evans, he’ll blabber to you until the next month if I didn’t do this.”

Lily smiled. “It’s fine. I should go. Good night, boys.”

“Good night Evans!” James said a little too chipperly.

“Merlin, you’re pathetic.” Sirius groaned. His exasperation was cut short when Remus had called him from on top of his shoulder. “Yeah, Rem?”

“You kept the braid.” Remus muttered.

“Of course. You did it.” Sirius kissed the top of his head. “I’d never think to take it off.”

As Remus slipped to dreamworld, a big smile perched on his face.


End file.
